Armin Laschet (Chancellor-Candidate of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, 2021)

thank you very much Mr President excellencies ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for your invitation I think it's a pleasure to get in touch with you and to meet so many high ranking excellencies presidents of important countries in this region and I am very honored to be here and thanks of course uh to the academy of cultural diplomacy that you organized this first conference here and when I heard about the results yesterday I think it was a good idea to come to Scopia to discuss those issues and I think we should follow in the next years in a similar way to bring people together many important issues were discussed at the Scopia cultural diplomacy Forum yesterday the meetings dealt with multilateralism the impact of culture for a better standing between countries the future of Europe and role that the Western Balkan should play and first of all I can tell you the position of Germany and this is the position of the current government and the former government we have now a government with social Democrats greens and liberals we had before the government of Angela Merkel with Liber with social Democrats and Christian democrats but all parties say our goal is to include the Western Balan countries into the European family there's no debate between the parties everybody support the process and we want that these countries will be members of the European Union and with it to of course North Macedonia but if you think about the last 20 years there is a lot of problems which are not normal in accession processes we had first of all six member states in the European Union then 9 then 12 then 15 and after 8990 after the reunification of Europe we had new member states from uh middle and Eastern Europe in a perspective of 10 12 years so it was decided in 1990 91 to open the European Union for Poland for uh Hungary for Czech Republic for Slovakia and around 2004 they became members this was nearly 10 12 years now we are discussing about the Balan since 20 years more than 20 years and if you see the different countries the process of integration is very different while Serbia has opened the accession talks since a couple of years for example uh Albania has started the negotiations last year North Macedonia has been a candidate for European Union's membership since 2005 two years we have the 20th anniversary of being candidate and uh in 2009 the European commission agreed to start the negotiations process but you to identify related demands so far it hasn't happened in 2006 Bosnia and herzo applied to be a member of the European Union it has become a candidate since last year Montenegro has been a candidate for the European Union since 2010 and until now only three of 33 negotiation capitals were closed in summary the process of European enlargement towards the western balcan states has stagnated and when we hear today debates about Ukraine becoming a member State uh I think this is not a fair process this is of course a signal to Ukraine in this moment of the war to say there is the the door is open to the European Union but everybody who expects that Ukraine could be shortly be member of the European union doesn't understand the European processes and before Ukraine is member of the European Union I think Western balcan States has to be member of the European union we need this uh priorities otherwise the European project will not function and there is a lot of reasons why it happens like it happens there's a deep change in our life fostered by the globalization new technologies digitalization artificial intelligence are promoting new chances but it include new risk and threats and we have inside the European Union right-wing extremist groups they have arised and got many sympathizers partially they are involved into governments and they are Euros skeptical and they are usually against enlargement this is an interesting process they are part of the Union part of governments they want to be member of the European Union but that are against new members and therefore we have to convince a lot of people for this enlargement process and Europe had of course in the last years a lot of other issues the corona pandemic uh the global Powers uh who are increasing like China and Southeast Asia there are reasons why we are talking about a pulley crisis for Europe it includes also Russia's renewed Imperial Ambitions it brought the war back against again to Europe but this is not an argument not to to go ahead with the with the accession process of Western Balkan and after the Russian war against Ukraine the German Chancellor Olaf Schultz said the German word citan vender this means in other words a turning point in international politics I think this is a very German perspective to say tiitan vender and turning point in international politics because this region had a lot of turning points in the last 30 years uh there was first of all the turning point of the end of the jugoslav state the collapse of the Yugoslavian State then you had a war in this region and if when people say the war is back in Europe in Ukraine no the war was back in the 19s on the balans this was a war inside Europe and therefore uh we have to think this word tiitan vender this Turning Point not only from the German perspective but as well from the Balan perspective and uh you know Francis fukuyama this American writer wrote after 1990 this is the end of history now the Soviet Union had collapsed and all the problems for the future are solved this was not true we see we have more problems than before and we have to find new Solutions and my message today is um we have to solve political problems but we have to think how we can overcome the historical and the identity discussions we have in this country and in the neighbor countries if you define the solutions of problems from history and every state has its own position and his own view on History you will never have a solution for the whole region and therefore in 2014 then Chancellor Angela Merkel has established this Berlin process the goal was to Foster regular meetings for the Western Balkan states to find out Solutions together and in 2020 the Western Balkans signed an agreement to establish a common regional market so this is the European idea starting in this region because all the other things doesn't function and it includes the free circulation of goods Services capital and individuals I want emphasize the regional use Office established in 2016 it promotes cooperation between civil stakeholders among the Young Generation and however there are weaknesses of the Berlin process on the one hand many projects are implemented sufficiently and on the other hand the regional cooperation of the western balans is not in line with the European integration process Europe answered not so fast as it was possible to support this process and we have to bring this together and I think M Macedonia has North Macedonia has established an alternative in 2019 the open balcon it's comparable with the shenen area and I know the behavior of some member of the European Union is not constructive in that process but I say we have to go on this way to to create cooperation across borders I'm aware to the impact of history on the balans is enormous the countries are facing the past of the Ottoman Empire and the former Yugoslavia there are unsolved border conflicts including ethnical and religious tensions and there is the pain of wars and losses in the past and for now we shouldn't talk about the past I talked about an amount of conflicts we have to deal with in the European Union and the Western balans have the same issues too and if we see the figures in the world Germany had around 70 million inhabitants 1950s today it has 80 million inhabitants Europe's population has 450 million over decades and the world's population in that time increased from 2 billion to 8 billion so the influence of Europe is getting weaker year by year if we don't cooperate together 2 billion 450 million Europeans 8 billion today and in the future even more so we need European answers to find good Solutions and I want to tell you some experience I come from aen in the west of Germany closer to Paris than to Berlin even in the feeling of the people and it was the city of Charlamagne and Charlamagne is such an example it was the emperor and he had an Empire including Germany France Benelux and Italy so the old European union and the French people say this is our emperor Charlemagne the Germans say no it's a it's a German it's carosa uh but it's the same person and sometimes you have the different things here I learned about some leader here in Macedonia where the bulgarians say he is a Bulgarian and the Macedonian said Samuel or something like this is just the name don't touch that issue don't we touch every issue because okay but I I come now to this point H you have different positions of history in the people not in the the heads of States they know we need pragmatic Solutions but populist and others uses history to bring conflicts into the thing and the German French history was for centuries a history of war and of hate and people learned in the school and therefore I touch it in the German French solution was perceived as naturally given hereditary enemies so the PE the pupils learned in the school the French man is the Enemy by birth by genes you can't change it by politics it's in the genes that we have to fight each other every 30 50 40 years and the first and now remember the first German Unity started in 1871 before German was not a nation state there were different states in Germany the holy Empire Holy Roman Empire uh of German Nation with different Emperors but you had a federal system but not a centralized State 1871 the German state was founded after the German French war and it was founded not in Germany but in Versa in the the the castle of Louie Kos the proud of France this was the place to found the German state so from the very first day the biggest humiliation you can imagine to found a state on a foreign territory was there and the French people lost the wall they lost alas LA elas but they said don't talk about it always sing about it this was the meas so don't touch the issue they said don't touch the issue now we lost but we have the possibility once we will be strong and we'll take it back this was the feeling for 40 years and then the first world war started 1914 French s nobody wanted this war you remember the the attack in Saro and nobody wanted this war at the end Russian Austria Germany France were in a World War not wanted the war but everybody said okay if the war is there we used the opportunity to change history and then Germany lost this war and had to sign surrender in a railway Wagon in the forest of compen and then the treaty was made in Versa they went back to Versa made the Treaty of Versa and this treaty were in the feeling of the German people so Injustice that the young democracy of Germany 1980 18 uh was always defending this treaty and 12 years later Hitler came to power and you had the same problem the same process the same reveng we saw before and then Hitler went into France 1940 took this Old Railway way wagon from a museum in south of France brought it to the forest of compania and then the French had again to surrender 1940 in the same wagon history came back and in the in between millions of death people uh between the two countries and the whole world and whole Europe and Soviet Union 60 million people after second world war and now 5 years after the war 5 years not longer the politicians decided we will stop this circle of war and Robert Schuman proposed the agreement of coal and steel to say those industry who always led to war coal and steel for production of weapons we take them out of the national control and bring bring them to a European level the Montan Union Mont Union where French and Germans decide together about coal and steel at that time this was a historical sensation because all the French people had in mind the millions of deaths the murdered Jews all the things who happened just 5 years ago but they made this big step to said now we start a new chapter we forget about no we don't forget about it but we start a new chapter in remembrance that this shouldn't be happy uh happened again and this was open to other member states Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Italy followed so this was the core of the European Union this Montan Union with coal and steel and then they cooperated on the on the economy the Treaty of Rome the cooperation in other issues and for him would call it was always the the final Stone in the project the common currency if you have a common currency you can't go into war against each other because to go into war you need money and this was in the nation states competence and the idea of the European common currency was not a economical question it's today economical question to be strong against the dollar and other currency in the world and the brick states now think about a new currency against the dollar but this is one aspect of the common currency but the main aspect was to have a common currency so that war in Europe between member states of this currency is not possible any longer so this is the story and I think we can learn from this process that if you discuss about historical issues don't touch it Mr stoyanov told me yes but they are there but you have to bring to the people the broader view we all are winners if we overcome this historical question and we discussed with uh with the former president just one hour ago about the question if we have globalization do we need nation states and my position was learning all of this for the big challenges in the world the nation state alone is too small every nation state is too small to fight climate change you can't fight it in 10050 States because you need common Solutions in covid we learned we have to fight it across borders it's not possible for one state to solve alone the co problem but we need cooperation across borders this means for Western Balkan you must be part of the European Union to be strong in a globalized world but you need something like national identity because the people feel where they live they have a regional feeling they have a tradition and history in their field but this feeling must be not stronger than the the the capacity of solution so you can be a proud North Macedonian a proud Serb a proud croat but you cooperate in the big issues you have to solve uh knowing the history but using pragmatic solutions for the problems we have today and if this is the European perspective I think we can find even a solution for uh the accession process we need need steps in between where how the States can be closer to the European Union probably you can open the single market for under different rules so that you can cooperate before you are full member and at the end you need the perspective of a full membership of European Union otherwise it will be fall back into the times of War because people who are against this process always use the problems use always the history use always different yeah positions uh to to to uh to destroy the broader perspective of Europe and our problem today is we have this process inside the European Union uh in different governments at the moment in the polls in Germany the IFD has 20% they will go to the European elections with the perspective Germany should go out out of the European Union they destroy the whole postra and you have to find you have to fight them you have to argue why this European project was the project of wealth of Peace of the of the rule of law um and therefore we have to fight inside the union and we have to fight outside the union and therefore I am in favor of uh the membership of the western Balkan of Solutions on a pragmatical basis and uh to overcome in a common way those historical different positions and hate we saw in the past and this is the European perspective and I'm happy to be here and to discuss this with you thank you very much